Kiriwina
| Kiriwina | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Waters | Solomon Lake | |
| Archipelago | Trobriand Islands | |
| Geographical location | 8 ° 31 ′ S , 151 ° 5 ′ E | |
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| length | 50 km | |
| width | 6 km | |
| surface | 290.5 km² | |
| Highest elevation | 46 m | |
| Residents | 22,163 (2000) 76 inhabitants / km² |
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| main place | Losuia | |
Kiriwina , formerly Boyowa , is the largest island of the Trobriand Islands in Papua New Guinea .
geography
The island is about 50 km long and very narrow and winding in most places. The west coast of the island forms the eastern boundary of a lagoon . A road built by the US Army leads from the northern tip of the island near Kaibola via Losuisa and Bwadela to Gilibwa on the southern tip of the island. This is where the smaller island of Vakuta joins.
According to the 2000 census, Kiriwina had 22,163 inhabitants. There were the following 82 villages and separate facilities (census units) , of which 81 were grouped into 25 statistical census districts (wards) (Gilibwa is included in another census district Vataka on the island of the same name). However, five villages were uninhabited. The largest were Kavataria with 961 and Tukwaukwa with 845 inhabitants. These places are located near the (smaller) island capital Losuia on the lagoon coast of the northern part of the island. Losuia is also the capital of the Kiriwina Rural LLG (Local Level Government) Area of the Kiriwina-Goodenough district of the Milne Bay Province . In addition to the Trobriand Islands , the LLG also includes the Lusancay Islands in the west .
history
A map from 1929 shows a division of the island, then still called Boyowa , into six districts, from north to south:
- Kiriwina
- Tilataula
- Kuboma
- Kulumata
- Luba
- Kaybwagina
At a later date, 10 districts were identified (including the southern neighboring island of Vakuta )
- Kudouya (northernmost)
- Tilataula (West-Central)
- Kilivila (Central)
- Kulupasa (west)
- Kuboma (southwest)
- Pelosi (southwest)
- Kulumata (southwest coast)
- Luba (south-central)
- Kaibwagina (south)
- Yaiwau (in addition to the southern tip of Kiriwina also and mainly comprised the southern neighboring island of Vakuta)
Further districts of the Trobriand Islands were formed by the islands of Kitava and Kaile'una .
During the Second World War , US infantry landed on June 30, 1943 on Kiriwina and Woodlark Island to the east as part of Operation Chronicle . The joint operation with Australia met no resistance from Japanese troops. In the weeks following the amphibious landing, US pioneers built a 2,000 m long landing strip fortified by a layer of coral, which was used by the Australian Air Force from August.
economy
For a long time, the banana leaf currency doba was used to pay in Kiriwina . With increasing contact with the outside world, it increasingly loses value and is displaced by the country's currency, the tola (dollar).
Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap
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Individual evidence
- ^ 2000 Census, Milne Bay Province, Kiriwina-Goodenough District
- ^ Bronisław Malinowski and H. Ellis: The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia. An Ethnographic Account of Courtship, Marriage, and Family Life Among the Natives of the Trobriand Islands, British New Guinea. London 1929, p. 647 ( online )
- ↑ Eric Vandendriessche: String Figures as Mathematics? An Anthropological Approach to String Figure-making in Oral Tradition Societies (= STUDIES IN HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE, VOLUME 36), 8.1.1 Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea, p. 235.
- ↑ The currency doba disappears in: FAZ of February 10, 2012, p. 10.
literature
- Paul Theroux : Trobriand Islands The Saved Eden. Geo No. 11, November 1993, pp. 32-58.